The profession of lawyer used to be quite a dusty profession. Whether it was a personal injury lawyer (Dutch: letselschade advocaat), an employment law lawyer or a corporate law lawyer, they were often unknown persons who hardly received any publicity. This was changed by the media, which mainly followed major criminal cases. From that moment on, the lawyers of the suspects also regularly appeared in the publicity.
It is now impossible to imagine television without lawyers, criminal lawyers talk about criminal cases and a personal injury lawyer from Amsterdam (Dutch: letselschade advocaat Amsterdam) talks about mega claims against large manufacturers, such as about the apnea machines from Philips and the claim on the NS for the paint that can cause serious injury.
We discuss a few well-known Dutch lawyers who are increasingly in the news, namely Bram Moszkowicz and Inez Weski.
Bram Moszkowicz
Until a few years ago, lawyer Bram Moszkowicz was the best-known Dutch criminal lawyer. He was a son of criminal defense attorney Max Moszkowicz Sr., who was known as the attorney for the Freddie Heineken kidnappers.
Bram Moszkowicz defended many suspects of all kinds of crimes. He was known, among other things, as the criminal lawyer of Bouterse, who was a suspect in the case of the so-called December Murders. He also defended the Dutch politician Geert Wilders because of his statement about Moroccans. Wilders called out during a party meeting whether his supporters wanted more or fewer Moroccans and was prosecuted for this statement by the Public Prosecution Service
Unfortunately, things did not go smoothly for Bram Moskowitz. He was accused of taking cash payments from clients more than €15,000.00. There is a duty to report this to the Netherlands Bar Association. Bram Moszkowicz, however, had not made this report. In addition, he was blamed for not having obtained enough credits, an annual obligation for Dutch lawyers, and he had not submitted his annual accounts to the Bar Association, which is also a legal obligation for lawyers.
For these facts, Bram Moszkowicz was removed from the bar association on October 30, 2012. His company went bankrupt, and he was also declared bankrupt himself.
Criminal lawyer Inez Weski
Inez Weski is a Dutch criminal lawyer who was known for being Ridouan Taghi’s lawyer. She also made the news several times for high-profile cases in which she acted as the suspect’s lawyer. In 2023, however, things went wrong, and she was arrested by the police on suspicion of passing on Ridouan Taghi’s confidential information to people outside the prison. Lawyers are prohibited from doing this if a suspect is in so-called restrictions. This is the case with Ridouan Taghi.
Inez Weski has been suspended by the Dean of the district of which Inez Weski is a part. This means that she is currently no longer allowed to practice the profession of lawyer. Whether she will be prosecuted further is unknown at this time.
Due to various high-profile lawsuits, lawyers have become well-known people in recent years. This is quite unique for a profession. Certain areas of law, such as criminal law, but also personal injury law are particularly popular and these lawyers are therefore widely publicized.
